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Media Sales and Licensing

You can download low-resolution files (72 dpi) from our website free of charge, for private and non-commercial use where indicated by the Share & Reuse symbol. You can purchase high-resolution digital image and sound files, and licence these, by completing this form.

Before processing your order we will issue a quote to you by email for you to consider. Orders will not be triggered until the quote has been accepted and paid for.

Please read the below information carefully before completing the form, to ensure you provide all the information we need to prepare a quote for you as soon as possible.

To search for an image or sound file

Before completing the form you will need to identify the items you would like to order and locate the IWM catalogue number for each one. You can search for images and sound files by using our Collections Search. A useful tip to search is ‘less is more’. If you put in keywords that relate to the subject you are searching for, rather than whole sentences, you are likely to receive more results. You can also use the filter options available below the search box. Click on the record to see full details of the item, including the IWM catalogue number.

If you see ‘Media not Available’ showing, this means that the item has not yet been digitised. Digitisation is available on request at an additional cost of £30 per item.

Copyright

IWM does not own the copyright for all of the items in the collection so before you use an item it is important to check the status.

Product formats

Standard digital files are suitable for general use. A copy is created from our master archive image, cropped to remove rebate and sized. Digitally restored files are available on request at an additional cost. Learn more about the range and quality of digital files we offer here.

Sound files can also be ordered in a range of formats:.WAV files (CD quality) recorded at 16-bit 44.1KHz.MP3 files are recorded at 16-bit 192Kbps. These files are digitally compressed to around one tenth the size of the equivalent .WAV file, so are quicker to download, but have somewhat reduced fidelity (not usually problematic with spoken material)
Audio CD (playable on a standard CD player)
Data CD (not normally playable on a standard CD player, but can usually be read by a computer)

Licensing

Any planned commercial use of images or sound files will require a commercial licence. Only once you have provided details of your planned usage, paid a commercial usage fee in full, and received a commercial licence document, are you lawfully licensed to reproduce our images for commercial purposes.

Please note that academic or not-for-profit projects will also need a commercial licence if audiences have to pay to access the work (this includes all academic books and exhibitions with site entrance fees), or if the use is promotional and directed toward commercial advantage.

A fee is charged for the commercial use of IWM images. This is based on a scale of fees dependant on specific use. Criteria required for some of the more popular uses are listed below.

Books, magazines, newspapers, subscription journals

Price dependent on:

the estimated print run of the publication

the size of each image as a proportion of the page

the rights required (single or multi-language, one country or world rights)